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By John J. Metzler
PARIS ― "Barbie" has charmed Paris. The pink-hued doll figure came alive in its blockbuster movie rendition that has captured the hearts and imagination of French film viewers during the second post-COVID summer. Next, after the syrupy saccharine adventures of "Barbie" comes the cerebral but dark "Oppenheimer," the story of the developer of the atomic bomb. And third, the perpetual and popular adventure movie "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning."
In fact, all of the top five films across France in mid-summer are American. U.S. films continue to hold sway at the box office even among the top 10. Only "Indiana Jones" has faltered this season.
Over the past year the majority of France's top 20 films are from the USA; "Spiderman" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" are naturally among them. "Avatar: the Way of Water" was the overwhelming hit of 2022.
This is not to say the French film industry, historically one of the world's oldest and most celebrated, is not a major box office player. But while there are many successes such as the recent "Three Musketeers" remake of the beloved novel by Alexandre Dumas or the animated "Le Chat Potte," France's film industry is probably best known for art house films highly subsidized by the French state to the tune of approximately 40 percent of a movie's production.
Interestingly, even today Paris has the highest per capita density of cinemas of any major city. There were 287 films produced in 2022, about double that of the United Kingdom.
Movie houses are making a strong comeback and the grand palaces in the Montparnasse district seem to be having a great summer season. Last year, French cinemas saw a strong box office recovery with a million admissions, data from the National Cinema Center (CNC) shows. Yet the number is still below 2019 levels.
What the BBC in the U.K. has described as "Barbenheimer" fever gripping London has most certainly spread to France too. "Barbie" is currently on track to become the biggest film released this year with one billion in box office sales globally thus far, albeit not in Afghanistan!
Through these films we are transported from the frivolous Pink Barbie Land, to Barbie's Real World, only then to reach the Too Real World in "Oppenheimer" and the saga of the atomic bomb during the later phases of WWII. While "Barbie" deals in plush pink fun, "Oppenheimer" confronts the moral ambiguity of the creation of atomic weapons.
Speaking of the real world, the important American film "Sound of Freedom," which confronts the worldwide scourge of child trafficking was not playing in France. According to the Hollywood Reporter, "Angel Studios announced release dates for 21 markets, including the U.K., Australia, Spain, South Africa and a host of countries in Latin America." It's not known if France is among them but certainly should be, given that the country is a hub for illegal transit from Africa and the Middle East.
While American movies are part and parcel of the French cinema culture, many of these movies and TV series have been filmed in or partly in France. The thriller "Da Vinci Code" is one, or the current popular Netflix series "Emily in Paris." Historic and iconic settings abound for thrillers or romances.
Now in the post-pandemic era, movies are making a comeback, even in theaters. It's a good summer for cinema. Hooray for Hollywood?
John J. Metzler (jjmcolumn@earthlink.net) is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China."
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